I tried to downsize my server about 4 hours ago and something must have gone wrong during the process as until now the machine is not accessible via the web.

I've had back and forth conversations with support but they're saying it's nothing to do with them.

They're hinting that it's some kind of issue with iptables-restore but i've no idea about that. All I know is I didn't do anything other than shrink the disk, check a checkbox and push a button... just like I was supposed to do.

If anybody has any advice or input that will help me get the machine back online I would really appreciate it. I'm happy to pay a knowledgable person with experience to remedy the situation.

Thanks for your time.

Steve

PS: I've ran a few commands at the request of support and here's the output. It may give a clue as to what the issue is and how I might fix it.

iptables-restore v1.4.21: host/network `longview.linode.com' not found
Error occurred at line: 23
Try `iptables-restore -h' or 'iptables-restore --help' for more information.
run-parts: /etc/network/if-pre-up.d/firewall exited with return code 2
ifup: pre-up script failed.

And also...

[45765.915828] systemd-logind[3741]: Failed to start unit user@0.service: Unknown unit: user@0.service
[45765.915842] systemd-logind[3741]: Failed to start user service: Unknown unit: user@0.service

Quick guess: you need to edit the saved iptables file (not sure where it is since I use only Slackware) and remove the reference to longview.linode.com at its line 23 (and any other references to hosts by name)
or add:

96.126.119.66 longview.linode.com

to your /etc/hosts files
then reboot

Thanks for the response. I tried adding the line to hosts file but no luck. I don't know how to edit the iptables either and haven't found much via the net.

Thanks

Steve

Some hints:

* You can't shrink a disk without shrinking the filesystem first, so what exactly did you do to "shrink a disk"?

* If you have a shell and the web service does not work, the logical next step is to look at /var/log/apache2 to see what's wrong with your Apache server (if that's what you are using as your http daemon).

* If you are using systemd, "systemctl" will tell you what didn't work at boot time, in bright red.

More hints:

* Can you access your own web from the machine itself? Try "lynx http://mysite.example.com" from the command line.

* Does web service work after disabling all firewall rules with "iptables -F" command? (If it does, your firewall rules might be the problem indeed, if it does not, you seem to have bigger problems then).

I tried disabling/flushing ip tables but it didn't work.

In the end i hired somebody to fix it and it turns out it was a pretty simple fix.

Something definitely went wrong with the downsize and it WAS connected to linode.com

/etc/iptables.firewall.rules

# Allow incoming Longview connections
#-A INPUT -s longview.linode.com -j ACCEPT
# Allow metrics to be provided Longview
#-A OUTPUT -d longview.linode.com -j ACCEPT
# Drop all other inbound - default deny unless explicitly allowed policy
#-A INPUT -j DROP
#-A FORWARD -j DROP

Commenting out the rules relating to linode.com fixed the issue. I probably could have figured it out myself but I was getting too frustrated withe support and their lack of interest.

Anyway it's fixed now and if somebody else has the same issue they'll know the fix and won't have to put up with 4-5hrs of support trying to shirk responsibility. I've disabled longview andWON'T bother reenabling it again.

Thanks all for your help.

Steve

Something definitely went wrong with the downsize and it WAS connected to linode.com

/etc/iptables.firewall.rules

# Allow incoming Longview connections
#-A INPUT -s longview.linode.com -j ACCEPT
# Allow metrics to be provided Longview
#-A OUTPUT -d longview.linode.com -j ACCEPT
# Drop all other inbound - default deny unless explicitly allowed policy
#-A INPUT -j DROP
#-A FORWARD -j DROP